


End of the Movie

by bannanachan



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Angst, Drabble, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-25
Updated: 2015-04-25
Packaged: 2018-03-25 16:04:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 803
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3816487
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bannanachan/pseuds/bannanachan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He hadn’t brought it to court. He hadn’t even raised the issue. It wouldn’t have been right – for him, or the kid. But he had wanted to keep him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	End of the Movie

If he had brought it to court, he would have won. He’s sure of that; his friend Jim from high school, he was a lawyer now, and he said that men almost always get custody, when they ask for it. Plus, he was actually the kid’s parent, which itself was a leg up.

He hadn’t brought it to court. He hadn’t even raised the issue. It wouldn’t have been right – for him, or the kid. But he had wanted to keep him.

He actually did, for the first few weeks. It was their idea; the Crystal Gems had no idea what to do with a baby, let alone a newborn. Pearl was reading up as quickly as she could, but the reality was that the whole place was a mess. There was no crib, no bedroom, no toys, no diapers – not to mention the Gems themselves. With Rose gone, they didn’t seem to know what to do with themselves. They were worse off than he was, and he felt like his whole world had collapsed. And honestly, he wasn’t sure that he trusted them with the kid. Given the circumstances. So for the first few weeks, he kept Steven.

For the first few weeks, it didn’t matter. When he was a baby, mostly – he acted like a baby. He had fluffy hair and a blank expression and he slept and cried and he was boring, or he would have been to anyone but a father. To Greg, he was amazing. He could have watched him all day. Some days, that was what he did – he closed up the car wash and watched him, paranoid every moment that he’d do something he couldn’t handle and he’d have to call the Gems and pray to God that they would figure out the landline he’d set up. But he didn’t.

He started to notice things about Steven that looked like him, or like his family. He had his grandmother’s ears and his grandfather’s nose. Or maybe Greg was just seeing things. He was a baby after all. But it was such a relief, to see anything human about the boy at all.

(He was glad it was a boy. Rose had said it would be a boy, but he hadn’t believed her, not to the very last second. It didn’t seem possible that it would be a boy, that he could have anything to do with it, like his DNA was just going to give up in the face of such impossible odds. But it was, and it was one more thing, and he was that much closer to his kid.)

When Steven was three months old, he reached up at the mobile in his crib and encased it in a solid pink bubble. Greg dropped a hammer on his foot.

He called the Gems. They picked up. They were over in an instant. It was almost surreal – it had been so long, he’d practically forgotten they were there.

Garnet took him in her arms while Pearl poked at the bubble, an indecipherable expression on her face. Amethyst just stood there looking angry.

When Garnet finally spoke, he knew the words that were going to come out of her mouth before she said them.

“We’re taking him home.”

For the first two years, he still went to see him every day. Any less would have stretched the limits of tolerance. Not to mention that he didn’t necessarily trust them with him. He knew they blamed Steven for what happened to Rose. It was all that he could do, sometimes, not to feel the same – and he was his father. So he checked. It was incomplete – he saw his first steps, but not his first words; his first laugh, but not his first crawl. That hurt. But it was better than nothing.

It was sometime around Steven’s second year – he wasn’t sure exactly when – that he began to peter off. He was away from the car wash too often, they weren’t pulling in enough money. The kid had needs, and the Gems weren’t prepared to meet all of them. He couldn’t see Steven every day and keep him alive at the same time, so he stopped seeing him every day. It was every two days at first, and he kept to that, even if it was only for two minutes. Then every three. Steven grew older, and the Gems more protective. And he saw him every four days, or five. He saw him on breaks. He didn’t take vacations. He didn’t usually take days off. Steven grew.

Steven is ten years old, and Greg sees him once a week. Twice, if he’s lucky. The kid doesn’t mind. He’s busy. He’s ten, besides which he has superpowers. Of course he’s busy.

Greg minds. But he doesn’t say so.

**Author's Note:**

> Because writing sad fanfiction about minor characters from cartoons is what I'm doing with my life now! Kept to the length of a drabble at least. Thanks for reading!
> 
> Title is from "End of the Movie" by CAKE


End file.
